"Ah, but mister!"

"I'm sorry, but I really can't help you."

And so another hotel had rejected Zak. This was basically what had been going on since Hinata House turned his free pass down; Zak would check out a hotel, find out it was full, check out another hotel, find out the price was inflated due to some holiday that was apparently going on, and then move on.

"Ugh, 13 hotels, and I couldn't find a single reasonable one! At this rate it looks like I'll have to use up my special funds…although at the price rates so far it should only get me through the night! Oh…" Zak would have complained some more, but his stomach growling served as an interruption and he realized just how tired he was. He had been searching for over three hours, and it didn't help that he had trouble reading Japanese. "I should probably grab something to eat…but at this rate it may hurt me in the long run if I buy anything….gah!" Zak grabbed his hair and started pulling. It had been a while since he had gotten this frustrated, but he did feel more alive than he had been recently. Still, it couldn't exactly be considered much of a good thing: he had no food, no place to sleep, and he was in a foreign country. Maybe it was true that planning ahead could get someone far in life, though it's not like such information would suddenly help him out.

Not willing to waste any more time (nor being able to afford it), Zak stood up from the park bench he had been sitting on and prepared to check out a few more hotels. He only needed to make it for a month and he'd be home free! Perhaps he could find some odd jobs or something…but who ever heard of a guy working on vacation?

"…ERRVEERRTTTT!" Zak thought he heard someone's voice in the distance echoing throughout Hinata City. It sounded like someone was screaming Pervert at the top of their lungs, but no one around seemed to take notice. Zak concluded that it must have just been his imagination, so he let out a yawn and began to walk. That's when he heard someone screaming, looked up to see a strange figure falling, and then passed out before he could put it all together.

"Is he awake?"

"Yeah I think he's waking up!"

"Suu, don't get so close!"

Zak slowly opened his eyes to see four beautiful girls hovering over him…and Keitaro. "Did…did I die?" He asked, before closing his eyes and trying to remember what had happened. Maybe he had a fitting end, after all, it's not like his life mattered at this point. But why would some guy he just met be there?

"Heh, nah you were just knocked out for a few hours!" The energetic dark skinned girl from before grinned.

"Suu! Well, anyways, this idiot over here fell on your head and knocked you out cold," the older girl with antennas on her head, pointed at Keitaro.

"Hey, if you hadn't punched me, Naru, then I wouldn't have…"

"Well if you hadn't have latched onto my skirt!"

"Hey, guys, calm down, please!" The youngest girl with short hair, the one in the alien costume from before, piped in.

"Oh, you're right, sorry Shinobu,' Naru sighed.

"Shouldn't you be apologizing to him?"

"No, you should be! You're the reason why he was knocked out!"

"Um…" Zak looked from head to head, trying to find some sanity within the bunch. There was the loud girl with hair strands that resembled antennas, her name appeared to be Naru and while she was stunning, she also seemed to be bossy and aggressive. She had somehow punched Keitaro into the sky so that he would hit Zak on the head…but had she done it from the inn? No way, that'd be humanly impossible.

Zak turned to the next girl, Suu was what she was called. Her speaking was a bit strange, and while the other girls definitely showed some type of abnormal energy, she was the most hyperactive of them all. Since he had woken up, he hadn't seen her sit still once.

Then there was the short haired girl. He didn't know her name yet, but she seemed modest and reserved, a bit out of place in Zak's opinion. But he didn't have much to go off of for her, so maybe she fit in better than he could have imagined.

And finally there was the last girl, the dark haired "sister" to the manager of the house. She had been staring at him for quite some time, and Zak was beginning to grow unsettled from it.

"You're from America, aren't you?" She suddenly asked.

"Huh? Uh, yeah, I am. How'd you know?" Zak wasn't really sure how to respond to her. She was pretty cute too, even among the other rowdy girls he had come across so far in this house, but her monotone and otherwise quiet attitude didn't really strike him as pleasant.

"Hmm…I've been around," the girl turned her head as she spoke, "Americans are really quite easy to spot out, especially if they're on a trip."

"Ah, oh, I see…" Zak took a look at his clothes again. He didn't see anything striking that would set him apart from anyone else in the room, besides the fact that he wouldn't look good in a dress, though neither would Keitaro.

"So how has your search for residence been?" The girl begun a new conversation.

"Oh yeah, I hope it wasn't too inconveniencing for you to not be taken in here!" Keitaro frowned.

"Uh, no, not really… I mean, well, it has been a bit difficult…"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it is Golden Week now, huh?" Keitaro scratched his head and seemed to be in thought.

"I guess so, at least that's what the other hotel manager's have been telling me."

"Wait a second, just what's going on?" The girl, Naru piped in now. Apart from Keitaro and his sister, none of the others really had a clue to what was being discussed, or why the guy apparently knew them both.

"Well, you see, this guy apparently had a coupon from my grandma that let him stay at Hinata Inn free of charge…."

"But this isn't Hinata Inn, it's a girls dormitory!"

"Yeah, I know that now," Zak stated, while rising to his feet. He hadn't noticed where he was yet, but suddenly realized that he must've been placed in an extra room. Man they must have so many of these, yet I can't even borrow one… the hopeless boy thought to himself with a sigh. "Uh, I want to thank you guys for your….hospitality." Zak tried bowing out of courtesy, but felt he was doing something wrong, so he turned to leave.

"Um, sempai, don't you think we should do something?" The youngest girl spoke again.

"Hee hee, what's wrong with letting him stay? He's got a ticket right?" Suu smiled as she swung from some kind of handle on the roof. Zak quickly turned around at the mentioning of his predicament, and suddenly felt a ray of hope shine through him. Would he be allowed to stay after all?

"No way! It's bad enough that we've got this sleazy pervert around, but another guy? Hah! And just think what would happen if Motoko found out!" The girl, Naru, seemed to be some kind of yin to Zak's yang. If he had his facts straight, then she would have also been the reason why his head was in pain and why he was here again in the first place, though maybe Keitaro had something to do with it as well.

"Heh, don't worry about it, I'll be fine," Zak raised his hand in response. "Actually, I'm really used to this kind of thing, it's just my own fault for not thinking ahead, as usual."

"Huh? What're you talking about?" Naru frowned this time, while the other girls seemed to be quite interested. If Zak hadn't been so rundown at the moment, he probably would have noticed that these residents apparently enjoyed gossip, or at the least, a good story.

"Well, I didn't get into the college I wanted to because I hadn't cared about my grades, and I relaxed too often at my old job so I was fired, and then with my ex-girlfriend…" Zak let out a sigh before realizing what he had just spilled on himself. "Ah, don't think about any of that though! Just, uh, pretend that I didn't say it, I mean it's not really that big of a deal…" Zak looked up, a bit embarrassed now, but was shocked to see the close up faces of Keitaro and Naru covered in overly dramatic tears.

"You failed to get to college…"

"And your life is down in the gutters now…"

"So you decided to take a trip!" The two of them took turns speaking, and then yelled in unison.

"Trust me kid," I know exactly where you're coming from!" Keitaro's tears instantly dried up as a twinkle appeared in his glasses. He tried to pat Zak on the back, but the "kid" didn't let him.

"You know, you don't look that much older than me," Zak commented with an annoyed expression.

"Still, it looks like you've gotten yourself into trouble," Naru came up this time and managed to succeed in patting the boy's back. "Hey, you're the one that wanted to turn this place into an inn, right Kanako?"

The sister of Keitaro looked up from her teacup, and seemed taken aback. It looked as though the three other girls had lost interest in Zak, brought in a tea set and a stove, and warmed up some drinks.

"Um, well that was my intention when I first moved in here…" The girl, now given the name of Kanako, nodded.

"Yeah, and you even taught us how to service and everything!" Naru grinned.

"Uh…service…?" Keitaro's eyes glazed over for a second as though he were imagining something.

"What're you thinking about pervert! Don't start taking Kitsune's ideas!" Naru didn't hesitate to grab Keitaro and slam him down onto the nicely set table, furthering his injury while the burning hot tea kettle poured all over his head. The other girls were nonchalant about the situation, though, and had simply grabbed their cups before the impact and continued to sip away.

Don't mess with her, was the first thought that came across Zak's mind, as he took another look at the ferocious woman. She had already retaken her cute demeanor, however, and seemed overly welcoming to Zak. It disturbed him greatly.

"It'd be fun to get a new guy to play around with!" Suu shouted energetically. Shinobu smiled meekly beside her.

"Well, if he has no where else to go, this seems like the right thing to do…" She spoke softly.

"Right, and we'll be one more step closer to being an actual inn again! Things will finally work out big brother!" Kanako seemed to grow a gleam similar to her brother's in her eyes.

"Ah…right…" Keitaro stumbled through the wreckage his body had created.

"So it's fine with you, right Zak?" Naru smiled once more. Zak didn't know if he could possibly refuse.